


You Make Me Feel Good

by lzclotho



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - In Storybrooke | Cursed, F/F, Headcanon, Post-Curse Storybrooke, Pre-Curse, Red Queen Week, Sexual Content, Storybrooke, enchanted forest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-30
Updated: 2015-01-02
Packaged: 2018-02-27 13:55:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 9,115
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2695502
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lzclotho/pseuds/lzclotho
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Regina, reluctant wife of King Leopold and young practitioner of magic, heals a werewolf in the night, beginning a relationship that will eventually span two worlds. Red Queen secret relationship, pre-curse, during curse, and post-curse.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Part 1: The Enchanted Forest

**Author's Note:**

> I tagged this as part of Red Queen Week, just to get it out there. This is my very first Red Queen story. I started having this idea about six months ago, and then it finally started to form on the page, so I kept following. I hope that you enjoy. Please let me know. Finally, I didn't have a beta for this, so all errors that appear are mine.

The first time Regina saw Red, she didn’t really know what she was seeing. Leopold had taken Snow on another of their “kingdom tours” leaving Regina behind at the castle. The king never said anything outright, but the stern look when she brought Snow’s bag, asking once again if she should pack one for herself “to care for the child on the road” told her all she needed to know:

_This will never be your kingdom. It’s hers. She’s my heir. What need you know of the people beyond these walls?_ He spoke, “The kingdom awaits their princess.”

She dipped her head and retreated to the tower, where she watched until the carriage had vanished beyond the horizon. She had been a citizen of this kingdom her entire life. Before entering this castle she had known more about its character than either Leopold or childish Snow. Sometimes she heard things at court, attempted to comment, and Leopold would narrow his eyes at her, causing her to subside.

She remained in the tower long after the moon rose. It was full this night, gloriously golden and slowly rising through the trees. The land became bathed in ethereal light.

It was then she spotted it. A shadow slunk along the edge of the forest. At first she thought she had imagined it. Then the shadow emerged again. This time it had form, crouching low to the ground. A man, no, a beast on the hunt on all fours.

She heard screams later, after she had gone inside to her bedchamber, male screams. She woke in a sweat having fantasized they were Leopold’s screams, someone murdering him and freeing her from the marriage. The screams soon became identifiable as several human voices, high-pitched in terror. She clutched her sheets and closed her eyes, not sure what she was praying for.

In the morning, over breakfast, her husband’s second-in-command entered the dining hall. She looked up from her porridge. “Your majesty,” he began with a half-bow. He showed deference, but she knew, his bow was much deeper for his king and his princess than for her. It soured the milk in her stomach.

“What is it?” she asked.

“The beast was at large again last night,” he reported.

“A beast?” Regina frowned; she knew Rumpelstiltskin had been called ‘The Beast’. But her teacher had not been to instruct her in several weeks: a project he had been working on for some time required lengthy attention. She was grateful for the reprieve, though she would never tell him that for fear of the reprisals. “What sort of beast?”

“The man-eating wolf, cursed beast,” the soldier reported. “Old Finian was its meal.”

“Make the necessary payments to the family,” she’d said wearily, turning to the chatelaine in charge of Leopold’s wealth. “Is there aught else we should do?”

“Kill the beast,” the soldier said.

She granted the permission to do so, then retreated once again to her private chamber to take up the potions magic Rumple had encouraged her to read about. She had created a room hidden off the long corridors leading to the dungeons. She’d taken to potion making with enthusiasm, recognizing in it a familiarity: women had been making potions for all manner of ailments and conditions for millenia. Perhaps a resurrection concoction lay undiscovered because only women, it seemed, practiced the arts of life and healing. She thought of Daniel, entombed in eternal stasis beneath her family’s mausoleum. Perhaps her magic would, finally, find a way. The full moon, after all, was a time of good luck, long sight, and omens aplenty.

She had considered concocting potions to rid herself of both Leopold and Snow at various times, but wanted nothing traceable. She also still just wanted to get away, gaining freedom. Were she to be implicated she would only become a hunted woman.

That night she heard howls as the sun set, and then as the moon began its descent to sleep she heard whimpering outside the chamber window. Glancing out, she met red eyes and the shapeless shadows resolved into the limping, struggling figure of a massive wolf.

“Stop whining,” she hissed. “They’ll hear you, find you, and finish you off.”

The wolf whined again, rolling to its side. Regina saw the gash, likely from dogs tearing its flesh. She looked beyond the beast, wondering at the absence of pursuers.

Meeting red eyes again, she mused, almost awestruck, “You killed them all, didn’t you?”

Looking around her lab space, she spotted a cloak. Throwing it over her shoulders,  With a wave of her hand, she magicked several vials of healing into a pouch on her waist. Then she gave another hand wave, transporting herself outside.

Regina wouldn’t have been able to explain to anyone the desire to undertake the insane actions she was about to make: approaching a wounded werewolf. But as the eyes followed her, teeth gleaming as the skin pulled back in a low growl, Regina continued forward.

“You bite me, and I’ll make a rug out of you,” she promised. The beast lowered its muzzle and closed its eyes.

A crunch of snow underfoot froze her in place for several heart-stopping seconds. Someone was coming. Laying her hand on the heaving beast’s side, she vanished them both in a cloud of her magic to the forest edge. 

Her mother’s spell prevented her from leaving the land, but perhaps she could still work out of sight of the soldiers hunting for the beast, and the lookouts on the castle walls.

Silence cloaked her and the wolf, whose breathing remained steady. Almost trance-like, Regina found herself working methodically, calm, almost… content. Just as she was cleaning the last of the wounds, applying her healing salve, Regina heard the crunch of snow and twigs nearby once again. She raised her hand to throw a spell only to see an older broad-shouldered woman aiming a crossbow at her.

“Move away,” the woman ordered sternly.

“It’s not dead. But I haven’t just spent two hours healing its wounds to watch you put a bolt through its heart.”

“She’s not dead,” and there was such relief in the tone Regina jumped when the crossbow clattered to the ground.

“She is not,” Regina repeated, looking at the wolf more closely. A female beast. “I take it you know her?”

“My granddaughter,” came the admission.

“These woods are not safe for her, with the king’s men hunting the beast.”

“Aye, well I know it.”

“You certainly can’t take her from here yourself.”

“I’m stronger than my years might suggest.” The old woman lifted the crossbow again.

“And how do you mean to carry both the weapon and the wolf?” Regina stood, stretched and dusted off her knees, looking past the edge of her cloak’s hood, grateful for the anonymity.

With a wave of her hand, she raised the wolf on a cushion of air. “Lead the way.”

“You are a witch,” the old woman said warily.

“I use magic, but I am no witch.”

“Why would you help?”

“The girl did not choose her fate. Let’s just say I understand having no choices.”

“You have magic. You have choices.”

“You’d think so, wouldn’t you?” Regina shook her head. “But it’s just as much a curse as that which possesses your granddaughter.” 

###


	2. Personal Project

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Regina is compelled to help the unknowing girl, and sets out to learn magic that might make it possible for the Lucas girl to live without the burden of the werewolf curse.

“She has no memory when she wakes,” the woman said, settling on a sturdy chair in front of the windowless bedroom where they had just laid the girl, still in wolf-form.

“That is a mercy,” Regina said. “To be unaware of the pain. If only for a little while. How do you explain her wounds when she awakes?” The elderly woman backed out of the room, closing the door behind her.

“I claim she is clumsy and accident-prone. She remains a rough-n-tumble child even in her maiden days. She believes me. But your magic healed her completely this time. Can you break the beast’s curse?”

“I know no magic that powerful,” Regina said. They heard noise and opened the door. Now on the bed lay the supine naked body of a woman only a year or two younger than Regina herself. Long ebony hair snaked around her shoulders and breasts, covering her modesty. Lips as red as sweet berries parted, exhaling a whimpering breath. Regina’s heart squeezed.

The innocence cried out to her own loss. It became imperative to find some way to preserve that innocence as her own never could be regained.

She found herself venturing quietly to the old woman. “I could try to find something.”

“The moon begins to wane in two days,” the old woman said.

“I will return in three days then.”

The elderly woman pulled the door shut, blocking the girl from Regina’s view. Regina turned to see her settling to the chair once again, crossbow on her lap. “We’ll be here.”

Regina vanished in a wave of her hand.

###

She had never given her name to the old woman; nor had the woman asked hers. And it would be so easy to forget what had happened in the woods as the days passed fruitlessly in her potions laboratory. She tried various combinations of magic and potions. The old woman had said she bagged the wolf, throwing a large burlap over it to calm it at times to bring it in. The tidbit made her consider, not a one-time potion, but something that might be worn, to block or stave off the transformation, until either the full moon phase passed, or daylight returned. But she would have to be covered at all times, and Regina could not see that happening without revealing to the girl her curse.

Once the third day dawned, Regina studied her latest potion, a mix of wolfsbane, a common werewolf ward, and a transformation potion, her idea being for the old woman to give the girl the potion each full moon to prevent the transformation, literally transforming her to human for the three days the moon was trying to turn her into a wolf.

But as she put on her cloak to hide herself as she traveled, the idea struck her that the cloak could be soaked in the potion for possibly the same effect. She grabbed a soldier, transformed him into a mouse and then threw the soaked cloak over him.

Squeals and screams rent the air for hours as the cloak and her mouse-spell competed for control of his form. She fretted for several more days after wiping the man’s memory. She didn’t want the girl to suffer; that was not the point of this.

She remained distracted by the puzzle even through her magic sessions when Rumple returned. Then he began talking about making potions specific to the consumer.

“Do you mean like putting it in their preferred beverage?” she asked.

“No, dearie,” he replied, and flourished his hand annoyingly. “A personal item. A memory restorative is best consumed from a personal cup or bowl. The poison on a knife of your victim’s very own.”

Regina frowned. Rumple slashed his arm forward and plucked out a strand of her hair. She grabbed for it with a startled, “What!”

He flourished again, and really, if he didn’t do that again it would be quite all right with her. “Demonstrating, dearie!” He made a vial appear and released her hair into it.

“What are you going to do?” She hated the worried tone she couldn’t erase from her question. Rumpelstiltskin felt so unstable to her at times, she was _not_ sure he wouldn’t kill her, all the while calling it “educational.”

“I could make you sprout wings and fly,” he said, adding a large feather to the vial. But then he vanished that and instead in the vial appeared a cat’s whisker. “Or I could kill you with your very own allergy… turning you into a cat.”

Regina’s throat began to close at the mere suggestion of such a fate. “No.” She put her fingers to her throat.

His eyes flicked over her, no doubt reading every molecule of her fear with glee. Almost as though it were an afterthought, he gave it over to her. “Take a look, dearie.”

She took the vial tentatively, examining it closely. “This would only work on myself? No one else would be harmed?”

“Unless they were so closely related as to be your twin, dearie, and we both know you haven’t that problem.”

“No,” she replied absently. “A personalized potion,” she ruminated under her breath. “Hmm.”

“Something on your mind, dearie?”

She snapped her gaze to him wary of sharing her actual thoughts. “A personalized potion would solve my problems.”

“Ah, the young princess. You still wish to be rid of her.”

“I do.”

“All right.” His gold skin gleamed, and his unkempt teeth glimmered in the candlelight.

Regina vanished the vial on her own, her mind turned to another on the workbench in her secret room. _But would be more beneficial to add something of the girl’s… or the wolf? Was there a difference?_

###


	3. I am good

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Regina presents Eugenia Lucas with the cloak and waits to learn if her efforts have been successful.

“I’m here,” she said without preamble, appearing inside the wolf-girl’s cottage home.

“She’s not here, insisted to go out with her friends tonight.”

“She is safe when it isn’t moon-time, right?”

“She should be. You said you’d be here three days after the full moon.”

“Something came up, but I believe I have a solution,” Regina said, pulling a cloak from beneath her own. It was shockingly red — she was a little concerned about that actually when the potion’s application had turned the fabric from its monk’s brown to apple-red. Perhaps the girl would find it too ostentatious. “I need one last ingredient to seal it to her specifically.”

“I knew it, you want something in exchange.”

“No. The spell can only be completed with a personal item from the girl.”

“Such as?”

“A hair. May I look in her room?”

“Vain as anyone her age I suppose, you’ll find something in her brushes. Will it change that garish color?” The woman’s lip curled in dismay.

“I don’t know. Will she refuse it?”

“She’s a child of fickle ways.”

Regina sighed. “May I look?” She gestured again to the room. “I’d like to be gone before she returns.”

The old woman nodded, following Regina into the girl’s room as she looked around. “You really want no payment for this. Why are you doing it? Will the potion kill my grandchild?”

“I hope not, honestly,” Regina answered distractedly as she lifted up a hair brush and examined its horsehair bristles. “I feel compelled to help. Besides, I don’t even know if it will work. I can only hope.”

“You need that then. Hope?”

“I do.”

“Then for my granddaughter — and for you — I  _hope_  it works.”

Regina slid a hair from the brush, produced a vial of the remaining potion, and added the hair. Instantly the potion bubbled and frothed, a hiss, like steam venting from a lidded pot, erupted in the silence. Laying the cloak out on the girl’s bed, Regina applied the adjusted potion. The cloak glowed, then subsided, but the red hue remained.

“She must wear it at all times,” Regina advised. “I know nothing else that will possibly work.”

“And we won’t know it does work until the next full moon,” the old woman said, lifting the cloak and examining its threads with narrowed eyes.

“I will not return, and she need never know.”

“But you will be watching. Somehow.”

Regina nodded.

“This is a good thing you are doing,” the old woman said. “Thank you.”

Heart swelling with pride in herself and her abilities, and the possibility that the darkness she felt encroaching was at least for a time set aside, Regina nodded. Before her throat could close up and tears betray her emotional upheaval, she lifted her hands and transported herself back to the castle in a cloud of magic smoke.

Even Leopold’s return with Snow from their trip that night could not dampen her smile.

### 

Three weeks passed and Regina looked up at the full moon in the sky. She heard no wolf’s howl, though she listened all night. In the morning came no report of the return of the beast.

Even the appearance of Snow at the noon meal, bright and cheerful in the easy way of a fifteen year old who has everything she could ever want, couldn’t dampen Regina’s spirits.

“What has happened?” 

“Yes, Regina,” Leopold asked, “what has happened?”

“I am simply feeling very well,” she said.

“That’s good,” Snow said absently, mind already flitting to other things as she sat to her meal. 

“Yes, I am,” Regina said under her breath. “I am good.”

###


	4. Set Free

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Regina finds Red, as she is now known, in the village, in a tavern, and discovers freedom in the arms of her free-spirited wolf-girl.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Red Queen sex.

The glamour spell is Regina’s favorite for a number of years, allowing her to slip free of the castle whenever she wishes. She is drawn to taverns, listening to the people. About two years later, she finds her wolf-girl once again. Long dark hair tumbling over her shoulders and down her back, she wears the red cloak with ease. She wonders what Eugenia Lucas told her to make her prize it as she does, pulling it away from young men who would attempt to use it to pull her into their laps. “Red” is her nickname now. And she’s laughing, drinking, and dancing with so many young friends. Regina feels warm just watching her.  _I made that happiness possible._

She sipped slowly at her drink, spending more of her attention simply drinking in the happiness of the girl she helped. Nights passed like this into a week, then two.

By chance, at the end of the second week, Red sees her and pauses. Regina wonders if the wolf within the girl recognizes her. Shadowed eyes reveal nothing before she turns away. Regina slips away at the next opportunity.

###

“Why have you been watching me?”

Regina looked up and stumbled to a stop. She had been preoccupied pulling her cloak’s dark hood back over her head, protecting herself against the inclement weather for the walk back to the castle.

The wolf-girl stood before her, arms crossed over her chest, the red cloak making her easily visible despite the heavy night shadows alongside the tavern. The confidence that Regina admired now felt intimidating with the girl’s height, several inches over Regina as she came closer.

She dropped her eyes just as Red tilted her head and a frown marred her brow. “You…you’re new around here.”

Gaze snapping upward, Regina couldn’t contain her surprise. “I…maybe.”

“Maybe?” Curiosity tugged at the girl’s features and Regina bit her lip to contain the anxiety as Red stepped closer. She looked up into gray-green eyes, holding her breath. Then there was the briefest confusion. “Do I know you?”

Regina’s voice was a bare whisper. “I’d like to.” She cleared her throat. “Show me around?”

Then Red was smiling and Regina felt the lightest she had in years when Red’s hand cupped hers. The fingers were long and soft, the touch sending her heartbeat thundering in her ears.

“Follow me.”

Regina had a small tour of the immediate village that night, which ended at the posting house barn. Red tugged her out of sight of the livery guard and pressed them both against the wood walls near the ladder to the loft. “I hope you don’t think me forward,” she breathed in Regina’s ear, sending shivers down her spine. “I have the craziest desire to curl up with you.”

“You have the freedom to follow your desires,” Regina breathed back.

Red’s lips brushed her ear, then her cheek, and then, oh god, Regina’s lips were pressed with the most delicate of caresses. Red’s nose brushed hers and her nostrils flared. Then the kiss was deepening, lips parting. Gasps, her own and Red’s, echoed in Regina’s ears. She clutched the material of Red’s cloak in a bid to keep herself upright as her knees weakened.

Red’s hands cupped her cheeks, lifting her face into their kiss, fingers sliding into her hair and cupping the back of her head. The tenderness of the gesture brought tears to her eyes, so long had she lived now without a loving touch.

Red eased back, fingertips brushing at the tears tracking down her cheeks. “Come on,” she murmured. “Up.”

Regina started up the ladder carefully hand over hand, feeling Red swing up the wood slats with agile ease, her body heat already curling around Regina as securely as her arms would in moments upon the hay.

In the loft on her knees, Regina turned to see Red looming toward her. She reached for the red cloak’s ties against the lean throat. Red stopped her, covering her hands. “We’ll use yours,” she said instead and nimbly removed Regina’s cloak, then lay down with her upon it, her hands gently cupping Regina’s cheek once again, lifting her chin before pressing their lips together once more. A warm body pressed along her length next, and then Regina didn’t think.

Red's hands skimmed her skin, sending shivers rippling from her head to her toes. She curled her toes and arched against Red's body. The girl's fingers were followed by her mouth, soft lips, the edges of teeth. Regina felt a wildness fire through her veins and she growled. Red growled back as she held herself over Regina, capturing lips as fingers stroked over her belly and then lower. Regina's breath caught as Red's fingertips touched tenderly where only she had felt gruff pawing before. She sighed as the sensations became electric, surging powerfully through her muscles. Sounds she was sure she had never heard before erupted from her own throat. She grabbed for Red's body, an anchor in the storm of sensations raging through her body.

Red whispered in her ear, warm breath doing amazing things to Regina's spine. "Let it go," Red said. "Howl if you want to. No one will come." She nipped Regina's ear. "Except you, of course." The deep chuckle infected Regina and she groaned, coming undone. For just the first time of many times that night.

When dawn’s first rays were breaking over the horizon, Regina curled up in the muscular arms of the wolf-girl, happily exhausted and feeling safe and sated.

###


	5. Storybrooke - Cursed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fast-forward to Storybrooke. Regina has enacted the curse and finds herself lonely. She finds Red, known as Ruby here, and makes a decision.

Years later, awakening in Storybrooke, Regina saw the girl and her grandmother again. Their eyes registered no animosity, but neither did the depths register familiarity. But Regina was mayor here, not queen. Deference came in simple greetings, small smiles, and Regina found herself taking breakfast at the tiny diner more often than not. Sometimes she talked with others but her favorite times were when Ruby, as she was called in this world, lingered near her table. It was all under the auspices of being quick to refill her coffee cup. At first.

Then Regina’s gaze began to linger on the curve of a breast peeking from a parted blouse, and she would remember days hidden in haylofts with the wolf-girl. She wondered if taking Ruby again to her bed would make her remember.

Then one day she caught Ruby’s nose twitching as she bent closer, and the gray green eyes flickered across Regina’s own. After years of decisive action from even less provocation, Regina only paused briefly to consider the consequences to her actions before she pressed paper money into the younger woman’s hand and asked quietly if she could bring the leftovers to her office that evening while she planned to work late at city hall.

Ruby had smiled warmly and, only a breath away from Regina’s face, she murmured, “I’ll come.”

Regina had replied, “Yes, you will.” Then she had walked out, body buzzing with anticipation.

###

Regina heard the heels clicking on the parquet long before she caught a glimpse of Ruby Lucas looking around the dark and empty mayor’s office. The door to Regina’s inner sanctum was closed, only the desklamp spilling its light, not far enough to pool under the door. Regina saw Ruby held the bag of leftovers from her lunch. Dark eyes started downward, considering what to do.

So Regina made her entrance. “Miss Lucas! I thought you’d forgotten about me.” Coming down the corridor, she pressed a paper towel between her fingers as if she had just emerged from the restroom. Truthfully, and embarrassingly, her hands were damp with perspiration. Over the last several hours, she had considered, and reconsidered, her potential actions, drifting off into daydreams of heated, reckless sex, and the potential nightmares of awakening the memories, and the wolf, of the younger woman. Her heart thrummed in her throat either way. It would be excitement, in a life that had become decidedly unexciting.

Ruby smiled at her and held out the bag. “Granny couldn’t let me go right away. I was hoping you hadn’t headed home yet.”

Taking the bag with both of her own hands from Ruby’s outstretched one, Regina’s palms lingered on the younger woman’s long, lean fingers and squeeze lightly. The sinewy warmth sparked something deep in her chest. Ruby’s eyes gleamed, with interest Regina hoped.

“Thank you.” She started for the office door. “Would you care to share something?” Regina put the bag in her left hand, moving her right quickly to the knob of her inner office door. She glanced over her shoulder, lowering her lids, showing her teeth in a quick, enticing smile. “Join me in a drink?”

Ruby glanced once over her own shoulder before following the mayor inside her office. Her fingertips tingled where Regina had caressed them. And that look, Ruby hadn’t seen that hungry a look in forever it seemed. She wanted it, wanted the taste and feel of it, her nostrils flaring like a predator on the hunt, catching the dark, spicy scent of the woman. The woman had dropped her gaze to the desk where she set down the bag, and not yet looked up.

Following the way slender fingertips and perfectly manicured nails tapped and partially reflected in the high shine surface, Ruby wondered if she wasn’t meant to be the aggressor here.

She knew Mayor Mills only as much as the powerful woman had allowed, watching her consume her coffee, or nibble a lunch salad, or hum in seeming contentment over a bite of Granny’s roast beef platter. There was the occasional — very occasional — glimpse at something vulnerable in the fawn-colored eyes. But it would be gone quickly, hidden behind her coffee mug.

Suddenly feeling the need to pace, Ruby recognized her own reticence, and pushed past it. She reached out, past Regina’s shoulder, bringing her body within mere inches of the other woman and grasped the bag, whispering as she did so. “What shall we drink to?” she asked.

Regina’s eyes slid to her and there was the confirming smile. Ruby smiled back as Regina stepped away, shoulders more firm, walking to the alcohol cart nearby. She unrolled the top of the bag and hefted it, turning to lean on the desk. Her short red leather skirt pushed up on the backs of her thighs, and she felt her own bare skin press into the pristinely polished surface of the desk.

She watched Regina pour two short tumblers of amber liquid. “From my private stock,” Regina said, in lieu of answering, holding one toward Ruby. “Apple cider.”

Ruby had her hand on the glass when Regina lifted her own to her lips and drank a sip, her gaze never leaving Ruby’s face. She knew what to do. When the glass was lowered, Ruby closed the short distanced, leaning forward, lips and tongue chasing the scent and taste of the cider from the sparkling drops on her dark red lips, into the heated recesses of the mayor’s satin-soft mouth.

Regina moaned into the kiss. Ruby took the glass from Regina’s hand, and set it with her own down on the desk without ever breaking the contact of their lips. Then she cupped Regina’s cheeks in her palms, deepened the kiss, and drew up the woman’s jaw even as she threaded her fingers into the silken hair curling around Regina’s ears.

Hands moved to Ruby’s hips, then around her back, grasping for purchase to steady her faltering knees. Reluctantly loosening one hand from Regina’s face, Ruby seized the woman’s hip and spun the mayor until she was supported on her own desk, legs parting around Ruby’s hips.

Ruby broke the kiss and trailed her lips down Regina’s jaw to the rapidly beating pulse in her throat. She licked at the skin then grazed it with her teeth. Regina gasped at the sensations and pulled Ruby closer, their breasts now pillowed against one another. Oh yeah, that’s the way to punch her ticket to happy, Ruby thought, doing it again and getting eager nails digging into her back on either side of her spine.

“Missss…Lucassss,” Regina hissed against her ear. “I want you.”

“Good,” Ruby chuckled throatily in her ear.

Regina’s head fell back as Ruby once again lipped and tongued, and teethed, at her pulse point, now palming a breast through silk. The nipple hardened under her touch and Ruby dropped her mouth to the straining top button of the dark purple blouse, and teased it open with her lips.

Arms around Regina’s back, Ruby held the woman’s torso up for her ministrations and soon she was stroking up bare flesh shoving the blouse off of delicate shoulders which she sensed had always held up far too much weight. On her way down Regina’s back, she made quick work of parting the bra and finished stripping Regina to the waist with an economy of motion.

Then she buried her face in soft breasts, modestly sized and yet the epitome of “more than a mouthful is just a waste.” It seemed every inch of Regina’s breasts was sensitive to Ruby’s touch, the mayor arching into Ruby as she nipped and sucked and teethed the masses, leaving small hickeys all over the dusky skin. Her hair was pulled on more than one occasion, the pain sparking a deepening of Ruby’s attentions to this or that spot, wherever she happened to be at that moment. Ruby thought she had never read another lover so well, so quickly.

The heat of Regina’s center against Ruby’s belly finally drew her away from the woman’s breasts.

“No.”

Slim hands caught on her own as she went to part the woman’s belt and then buttons. “You okay?” Ruby asked. “You still want this?”

Regina’s pupils were wide with what was certainly lust, but her eyes were wider still, and Ruby could swear she smelled fear. Ruby turned over her hands, catching Regina’s palms against her own.

“Hey, it’s okay. If you just want a little making out, I can do that. We’ll stop.”

“Don’t you want me?” The woman’s voice was afraid, which confirmed for Ruby her read that it was time to stop.

“Yeah,” Ruby said, “but when a woman says no, she means no. Even in the middle of something.”

Regina looked like she’d never heard such a thing in her life. “Would you stop me?” Regina asked.

Ruby smiled and shook her head. “God, no. You’re so hot.”

Regina’s hand grasped Ruby’s wrist and pushed Ruby’s hand to her own pants. “You first.”

Ruby squeezed Regina’s hand and leaned forward, sliding her body against Regina’s between her legs and kissing her tenderly. “You got it.” 

She pushed her pants off her own hips, and kicked off her heels. The action lowered her a few inches, bringing her head level with Regina’s breasts now. She wondered if that wasn’t part of Regina’s need as the woman settled her arms around Ruby’s neck and leaned forward to initiate a kiss.

She had started to part the buttons of her own blouse, when Regina’s hands slipped inside her own, pushing them out of the way. “Allow me.” The throaty voice poured over Ruby’s ears like warm molasses.

Mixed signals seemed to be the order of things, Ruby thought, but she smiled and let her hands fall to either side of Regina’s hips on the desk. “Whatever you want.” For these kisses, the chance for those lips anywhere and everywhere, Ruby decided, she’d go along.

“I want you,” Regina said again. Now though, there was more assurance in the voice, the more familiar mayor from Storybrooke’s council meetings, which Granny’s Diner catered once a month. Ruby hummed with pleasure as Regina’s lips left her own and skimmed down her jaw in a perfect mirror of Ruby’s own actions. And suddenly Ruby thought she had some answers.

“You’ve never done this before,” she said, cupping the back of Regina’s head as the woman had begun nibbling and sucking on her breasts. The revelation earned her a sharp bite. “Hey!”

“I’ll have you know I’m considered  _very_  accomplished.”

“In the councilroom maybe,” Ruby replied, earning herself another nip. She chuckled and eased Regina back from her body. The brown eyes had narrowed. Ruby shook her head, still smiling. “And that’s probably why your first thought was to come here, but… how about we change location, go somewhere a little less…” She trailed off, looking at a chair in the corner that reminded her of a throne. “Regal.” She nodded toward the chair, “Though that, I wouldn’t mind eventually trying out.”

Regina chuckled and her hands cupped together on Ruby’s bare chest. “Where did you have in mind?”

###


	6. You Make Me Feel Good

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Regina finds happiness in the arms of her wolf-girl once again, this time under Storybrooke's stars.

Walking along the waterfront with their shadows flickering in the moonlight as it played between the clouds, Regina asked Ruby where they were going.

“I’m guessing you’d not be too crazy with my grandmother hearing us,” Ruby answered

Regina nodded. “So, giving me another option?” She took off her shoes and rolled her feet through the edge of the surf. “Reenacting ‘From Here to Eternity’?”

“Not a big fan of the water, but I think…” Ruby trailed off. “Here.” She eased open a wood door on a square squat structure at the water’s edge. “Yeah, this’ll be perfect.”

Taking the lead, Ruby climbed rickety ladder rungs to the upper deck of a boat house. Peeking down from the deck, Ruby reached her hand down to Regina.

“Why do I get the feeling you’d make love in the trees if you could, all this climbing,” Regina remarked. Ruby laughed.

“Agile and flexible, that’s me,” Ruby said. “Come on.” Regina’s hand grasped hers and hauled Regina up with ease, assuring her a safe ascent.

Something shifted for Regina, and if Ruby realized it was the location, taking Regina once again out of her “castle” and into the “countryside,” she said nothing. They were naked quickly, Ruby’s laughter and intensity as all-encompassing as it had been that first night more than an age ago. Ruby briefly hesitated when Regina went to strip the remaining cloth, red cotton hi-cuts, from Ruby’s hips, finally seeing the young woman in all her glory for the first time.

They kissed, rekindling the connection that had sprung up in the darkened office, and Regina sighed and whimpered and wanted, Ruby joining her in caresses that enflamed and entreated.

Then Ruby curled herself around Regina, rolled onto her back, holding Regina’s back against her breasts above her. Regina saw the stars through the slats in the roof, twinkling down upon them as they had all those years ago through the barn roof. Ruby’s hands, one on her breast and one at her center, tangled and twisted, curled and thrust. Regina undulated, finally finding the release that had happened only that one time before. She cried out the girl’s old world name, thankfully unintelligibly.

“That’s it, Madam Mayor,” Ruby cooed in her ear as she continued to wring pleasure from Regina’s body. “Come on.” The pressure began building again, gathering under Ruby’s fingers in Regina’s most intimate place.

“Set yourself free,” Ruby breathed in her ear.

Regina’s eyes squeezed shut, a lifetime of fighting begging her not to give anyone control over her, but at the same time her body wanted nothing less than to fall — free — into the abyss of pleasure caught in this woman’s arms. She clung to Ruby, grounding herself, as long, nimble fingers caressed the bundle of nerves at the top of her womanhood. Her breath stuttered in her chest.

“I choose,” she hissed as the sensations and emotions began to coalesce once again into that too-full point and threatening to drown her as hard as a crashing wave. “Freedom,” she breathed out, welcoming in the wave, letting it cleanse and caress, and heal.

When she opened her eyes, breathing deeply, coming back to herself, tears clung to the corners of her eyes. She brushed at them and caught Ruby’s fingers trying to do the same.

"I’m fine, dear." Regina laughed throatily and rolled onto her knees, straddling Ruby’s hips. Her fingers demandingly slid down between their bodies. Ruby’s gaze held hers, eyes rolling back appreciatively as Regina found heat and wetness at the tips of her fingers.

“You feel so good,” Ruby breathed.

Regina bent forward and surged up between Ruby’s arms pressed together holding Regina’s rear, pulling and pushing so that their centers rubbed together. Bracing her arms on either side of Ruby’s head, amid their clothes scattered as bedding, Regina ground herself down into Ruby and murmured in the woman’s ear, “You make me feel good.”

Ruby gasped around her own arousal. “Oh. God. Anytime… you… want… I’ll…do it…again.”

###


	7. Midday Stress Relief

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Over breakfast at the diner, Regina arranges another rendezvous with Ruby, then her mood sours on a testy encounter with Mary Margaret. Ruby, however, determinedly brings stress relief, even if she doesn't know the source of the mayor's stress.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was mistakenly posted as part 5 on tumblr, but has now been corrected, everything updated both there and here.

Anytime Regina entered the diner after that night, Ruby came over to her table quickly. Then later, Regina would find her standing aside with a fresh hot pot of coffee the moment her first cup was drained. They talked of inconsequential things with others nearby, but their eyes hungrily conveyed what couldn’t be said. Memories of the one night made both consider more.

It had been a couple weeks, Regina thought. Time enough for learning whether or not Ruby’s Enchanted Forest identity would resurface after their encounter. So, she decided, there would be no harm in continuing.

She lowered her coffee and looked up to see Ruby leaning forward. The open buttons on her crisp white top pulled Regina’s gaze from the cherry red shorts accentuating the young woman's ass. Regina smiled but covered the mug. “To go, please?”

“Of course.” Ruby started to turn.

“Oh, and I think I’ll need to take lunch in the office,” Regina added. “My usual?”

“Of course, Madam Mayor,” Ruby replied eagerly. Granny growled, but Regina only smiled wider as she accepted the To Go cup from Ruby’s long fingers.

“I’ll bring the lunch you ordered over around 12:30?” Ruby asked for confirmation, their fingers sliding around each other on the side of the cup.

Regina smiled. “That would be perfect. I have an appointment at one, so I can eat right through,” she said.

Ruby’s cheeks flushed almost as red as the streak she’d taken to putting in her dark locks.  _Oh yes, lunch would be delicious_. Dipping her head to cover her smile, Regina withdrew from the diner just as Snow White -- Mary Margaret Blanchard in this world -- entered with books in her arms and collided with Regina.

“Mayor Mills?” The milquetoast version of her stepdaughter spoke weakly as she backed up and juggled her books to prevent them from falling to the ground. Ruby caught them. Mary Margaret smiled at the waitress. Regina frowned, recalling how Red had beome an ally of Snow's in the Enchanted Forest.

“Pardon you,” Regina snapped, voice instantly icy as she pushed past and out into the cold midwinter morning. 

* * *

 

By 12:30 Regina had scowled her way through several meetings, exacting petty revenges to ease the bitterness of memory. She was surprised when her secretary said she was heading out, but the diner's lunch had arrived for her.

Ruby appeared at the doorway as Regina started toward it, to order hr secretary to skip lunch. "Brought something for you," Ruby said.

Regina snatched the bags from Ruby and set the items out on the table beside her office couch. When she turned around, Regina found Ruby was closing the door quietly.

“Miss Lucas?”

“Lunchtime nookie.” Ruby spoke boldly and grinned widely. “I’ve been smelling your scent since you left the diner this morning.”

Regina had only a moment to register the comment before she was swept up in the strong arms, her mouth plundered by a hungry kiss so very reminiscent of her wolf-girl’s passions in the other world. The gray dress with its tightly trimmed fit did not allow Ruby to bare her breasts, but that did not deter the younger woman. She massaged and pinched and rolled Regina’s breasts under her fingertips and palms until Regina was gasping into their kisses.

Next, strong hands molded Regina’s body against Ruby’s firm young curves, grabbing her ass and finally pulling up the dress’s skirt, tugging at the hose. The seam prodded at her already swelling clit. Her knees weakened; Ruby lowered her to the upholstered chair, arranging Regina’s forearms on the high sides even as she continued pressing her lips’ attentions on Regina’s jaw and throat.

Shoes and hose were removed. Ruby’s warm hands continued moving insistently up her inner legs and her lips followed, pushing Regina’s gray dress up until it bunched around her waist. She threaded her fingers through the rich mahogany hair holding the girl in place as Ruby’s mouth followed her hands, tongue and lips licking and sucking her center.

Regina’s fingers flexed and tightened in thick hair; Ruby growled. The edges of teeth teased Regina’s clit, then Ruby sucked the nerve bundle into her mouth while pushing two fingers inside. The long, lean fingers curved in and downward, sparking shivers and setting Regina’s legs quivering. She controlled that, a little, by wrapping her calves around Ruby’s back. Her head fell back against the chair. Her hair pulling turned to stroking and she responded to Ruby’s chuckles against her flesh by humming moans to convey her pleasure. She rocked a little up into Ruby’s mouth.

The girl responded by adding a third finger, cupping her hand in and up then out, fingertips finding and exploiting some spot deep within Regina that made her groin pulse. Wetness flowed that Ruby sucked and licked until every part of Regina’s body tingled. Her release, when it arrived, shook Regina then made her go rigid before succumbing to lassitude. Finally, Ruby placed a delicate kiss on Regina’s quivering sex and eased back onto her crossed legs.

“You look rather smug,” Regina said breathlessly. “Perhaps I should have said no.”

“But you didn’t,” Ruby replied. "And you really needed to relax."

Ruby’s expression conveyed utter satisfaction with herself, her smiling lips pursed, the shine from Regina’s sex covering her from chin to cheeks. Regina watched as the woman languidly sucked on her fingers, cleaning the evidence of Regina’s orgasm from the long digits.

“Then I should return the favor,” Regina said in a low contemplative voice. “But I don’t have time now. I really do have a meeting.” She glanced at the wall clock. “In ten minutes.”

Ruby’s smile didn’t falter. “I look forward to it,” she said. “When and where?”

Regina couldn’t help but laugh as she leaned forward. “I like dining this way. Are you free tonight?"

"I was going to go out. It's Friday night, girls' night with Mary Margaret and a few others." Ruby immediately reacted to Regina's scowl. "But I'll cancel. Of course you come first."

"Do you think your grandmother will let you bring the mayor a late dinner? At home this time?”

“Probably not. She’s not really the mayor’s biggest fan.”

“Then sneak out,” Regina commanded. “Tell her you’re seeing a boy from the docks if she catches you.”

“What time?” Ruby asked, resting her cheek in Regina’s cupped palm, gaze never wavering.

“Eleven should do. I intend to have you howling by midnight.”

The gleam of expectation in Ruby’s eyes made Regina smirk before leaning forward to retrieve her hose. Ruby’s hand intercepted hers, collecting the hose and shoes for her. When Ruby came to her feet, Regina kissed her and sent her on her way before stepping into the private bathroom and repairing her appearance.

  
###


	8. Nude Awakening

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Having invited Ruby to the mansion, Regina worries that Ruby's wolf is awakening, but Ruby's attentions get Regina to set aside her complex worries for another night of pleasure in her arms.

Regina normally thought nothing of sitting awake all night staring out of the front window of her mansion and gazing down upon the silent streets of Storybrooke. Her creation. Her triumph over Snow White, who slept in a draft little loft alone, without the comfort of her prince. Her lips curled in a dark frown. After all, because of Snow, Regina had forever been deprived of her own prince, a stableboy who had only ever wanted a simple, quiet life loving her. Protecting her.

Instead, through her own hard-won actions, Regina had become self-sufficient, taken on her mother and won, taken on a king -- and won. Taken on fate -- and fashioned her own future. A happy ending.

She flexed her fingers around the mug of mulled cider, warmed for the cold Maine night, and had a tiny pang of remorse for the loss of her magic.

Then she saw Ruby moving up the street toward the mansion, sliding in and out of shadows and pools of light from the streetlamps. Here, what need Regina of magic? She had power. As the mayor, she had only to ask, and it would be provided. Only to desire it, and it would come before her. Oh, yes, she would come.

In the Enchanted Forest, as Regina pursued Snow, the times she transformed to seek out Red grew fewer and farther between. And the wolf never sought her out. It wasn’t until she was facing Snow and Charming on the battlefield that Regina had learned Red had befriended her nemesis. And then she vowed she would slit the girl’s throat if she ever came in contact with her again.

She smiled. Here, Ruby was hers, came to her, befriended her, sought her out for companionship, and more. Regina stepped away from the window and glided down the staircase, opening the front door just as Ruby raised her hand to knock. The angle of her face drew Regina up suddenly afraid. A trick of the light? Ruby’s face had suddenly appeared more angular...more...wolfen. She leaned hard on the door, staring.

“I’ve been smelling your scent since you left the diner this morning.”

Was it possible Ruby’s wolf could be coming through, even here, in a land without magic? Regina looked up toward the moon and inhaled in surprise. It was big and full this night.

”Hey, are you gonna let me in? It’s kinda chilly out here?”

Regina’s gaze snapped back to Ruby. “Where have you been?” Fear and anger warred in her tone.

“Am I late? You said eleven.” She glanced at her watch. “I’m right on time.” Regina inhaled, broken from her worry. Ruby was here; Ruby was hers.

“Come in, dear.” As Ruby crossed the threshold, Regina searched Ruby’s face, finding nothing but eager girl. Though she was dressed differently than earlier. Sleek black slacks, a long red coat. Underneath the coat, Ruby revealed she wore a red vest over a crisp white shirt.

“Thanks,” Ruby said, holding out her coat. Regina turned to take it after closing her door to find light, hungry eyes sweeping over her evening wear, a thin negligee barely hidden in a wrap.

“You look good enough to eat,” Ruby said, hugging Regina close and nuzzling her ear. “And I mean that.” A wolfish gleam entered Ruby’s eyes.

Regina heard a slight slur to the words and smelled the alcohol on her breath. She accused, “You didn’t come directly from the diner.”

Ruby shrugged. “Granny’s closed after the dinner rush by nine. Since you didn’t want to meet ‘til late, when Mary Margaret called, I told her we could go out for a little while.”

“How dare you speak to that woman about me!”

“About you? No. No. I just meant --”

Regina pushed Ruby against the wall, narrowing her eyes as she set her jaw and snapped, “Did you tell her about our affair?”

“Affair?” Ruby drew herself up and pushed Regina back. “If this is an affair, that’s news to me. We’ve had sex exactly twice.”

“Is that all this is to you, sex?”

“Isn’t it?” Ruby frowned. “After the boathouse, I thought...but nothing for two weeks,” Ruby stressed. “But then today--”

“I had to be sure --” Regina protested.

Ruby cut off Regina’s words with a hard kiss. “Sure that I wanted you? Didn’t all the longing looks and the attention -- Granny damn near wanted to tan my hide most times after you left for your workday --”

“But you went out and partied with --”

“You’re jealous.” Ruby chuckled, hugging Regina closer. “I hadn’t intended that, honestly, but I’m glad to know the wait killed you as much as it killed me.”

Regina put her hands up between their bodies. She tried to express her disdain for Snow without admitting to any jealousy of the sort. “I don’t care to share.”

Ruby kissed her. “There’s no competition in this town,” Ruby assured.

“Not now,” Regina said.

“Not ever.” Ruby kissed Regina’s throat just at the curve of her jaw. Regina inhaled. That had been Red’s favorite spot in the Enchanted Forest, since it had the effect of turning Regina into a puddle of desire almost instantly. The girl was a practiced lover whether she knew it or not.

When Regina opened her eyes, Ruby’s fingertips skimmed along Regina’s collarbone, underneath the gown and negligee, pushing both off her shoulder. “Take me to bed.”

Regina grasped Ruby’s vest, staring at the straining button at the apex of Ruby’s breasts. She stared into Ruby’s eyes.

“Where’s the woman who ran off with me to a boathouse? Come out and play, Madam Mayor.”

“You want her?”

“I want all of you,” Ruby said. “That particular part of you, however, is really hot.”

Regina’s smile was slow and delighted. There was an answering glint of gold in Ruby’s eyes. Regina let slip a little huskiness into her voice, giving Ruby a taste of things to come.

“If that’s what you want, Miss Lucas.” Regina grasped both sides of Ruby’s shirt and pulled. Buttons popped and pinged off the nearby plaster, echoing in their ears as Regina sharply hauled Ruby against her body and claimed her full lips in a devouring kiss.

“Oh, yeah, you’re what I want,” Ruby husked when Regina let her mouth go for a moment. Regina tugged at Ruby’s exposed breast then ran up the stairs. The younger woman followed hot on her heels.

 

* * *

 

Stripping as she went, Ruby was naked when they fell on Regina’s bed in a tangle, limbs negotiating space while bodies pressed to eliminate space altogether. Ruby was strong and lithe and, as she had claimed earlier, agile and flexible, putting her on top first.

Thinking the struggling woman would enjoy a play at dominance, since she had twice now let Ruby lead, Ruby pinned Regina’s arms above her head and rocked her hips against the woman’s warm body, growling as she peppered kisses on Regina’s throat. “I’m going to take you,” she said.

The body beneath her froze instantly. Pulling back in confusion, Ruby found Regina’s eyes soft brown and wide with.. fear? Instantly she pulled herself off Regina’s hips, stretching out beside her with a concerned caress of Regina’s cheek, drawing her gaze toward Ruby. The woman was shaking.

Ruby tentatively pulled Regina closer, pressing her back into Ruby’s front, stroking down her shoulders and over her belly. Into her ear, over Regina’s harsh breathing, Ruby asked softly, “Hey, um, you...you okay?”

Regina’s throat cleared, and her fisted hands slowly uncurled on Ruby’s forearms. “I...I’m sorry. I don’t know what…”

“I thought you wanted me to take the lead. I misread, obviously.”

“No, no. I...do. It’s just...pinned. I...can’t. Memories...” Regina’s voice trailed away. Ruby wanted to know about those memories, but this probably wasn’t the best time. Somehow, down the road, in the future, maybe over something more benign, like a dinner date...

“All right.” Ruby kissed Regina’s head. “Equals then?” She gently massaged where her hand lay on Regina’s stomach, draped partially over her hip. “Or you can be on top, if you like.”

Regina exhaled and the tension bled from her body; Ruby’s nostrils flared as she caught again the woman’s unique scent, which had been cloaked by her sudden fear, but now powered through, like the confident woman she was.

She expected the dark lidded passions she saw when Regina turned her head over her shoulder and met her gaze.

“Side by side is perfect.” Regina rolled onto her back Ruby kept her touch loose and easy Regina positioned Ruby’s hand on her lower belly, just at the top of her negligee’s tiny panties. She then rolled again, onto her elbow, lifting herself up as she leaned toward Ruby and pressed her own fingers against Ruby’s lower belly and inched downward, until she spread her fingertips into Ruby’s center. “Like this?”

Regina’s eyes had gone a darker brown, staring into Ruby’s. Ruby shivered in some deep recognition of the hunger. She’d become addicted to this woman quickly, she thought, her eyes roaming the hints of skin revealed as she stroked aside Regina’s negligee again. “You are incredibly...” She trailed off in search of a suitable word.

Regina canted her hips, inviting Ruby’s touch deeper. When Ruby didn’t immediately take the hint, holding back her actions with a devious smile, Regina blew out a breath. “I believe the word you are searching for is, in the current parlance, horny.”

Ruby laughed and, at long last, and once again, claimed the lips of Mayor Regina Mills, as she fondled and pressed deeper into the center of the writhing woman and she, in turn, pressed more deeply into her. Mutually they masturbated one another, eyes alert to every twitch, fingers responding to every nuance of their heated and wet flesh. Pants became moans, moans became groans, and then, Regina was tightening around Ruby’s fingers just as Ruby felt her own orgasm start. She reclaimed Regina’s lips, taking the cry of fulfillment onto her own tongue and giving it back, telling her they were in this together. It seemed to be the right words and Regina softened into her arms, clinging to her, pressing her lips to Ruby’s breast tender and soothing herself apparently.

Simply resting her arms and hands on Regina’s back and positioning a thigh to lift Regina partially atop her, Ruby nuzzled and pressed tiny kisses to Regina’s radiantly perspiring face.

Eventually, Ruby thought, she’d fully understand the woman’s complex depths. It was going to be one hell of a journey of discovery.

  
###


End file.
